Trademark registration in Oman

A trade mark goes onto the Omani register at the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Investment Promotion, through its intellectual property department. Two instruments stand behind that register at the same time, and it matters which one a deadline is quoted from.

Which offices to use, and in which order, belongs to the wider service — trademark filing, patents and copyright. The rest of what a business meets in the Sultanate sits on the Oman page.

Two instruments over one register

The Law on Industrial Property Rights, promulgated by Royal Decree 67/2008, lets any interested person give the registrar written notice of opposition within ninety days of publication in the official gazette. Royal Decree 33/2017 then promulgated the Gulf Cooperation Council trademark law over the same subject, and that law sets the window at sixty days.

Both are in force: the Gulf law came without implementing regulations, so the 2008 instrument still answers. That is why this page does not put a single objection window on the record: we treat the publication date itself as the thing to hold, and read the window from the instrument the office applies to your file.

Where the ten years start

Protection runs for ten years from the filing date of the application, and it is renewed for consecutive terms of the same length. A renewal fee paid late is still accepted for six months after expiry, against a surcharge.

Two doors onto the Omani register

Filing in Oman directly

The application goes to the ministry with an image of the sign and authority for whoever signs it. The register is read first, and the list of goods is built before anything is submitted.

Designating Oman from abroad

Oman has been inside the Madrid system since October 2007. An owner who already holds a home registration adds Oman to an international one, and the Omani office keeps its own examination of the mark.

What the second door costs

Designating Oman costs 417 Swiss francs for one class and the same amount for each further class. Renewing that designation costs 625 francs per class, which is the steeper half of the arrangement.

What the ministry needs from you

• An image of the sign, exactly as it will appear on the product.
• A list of goods and services mapped onto the classes the register uses.
• Authority for whoever signs on the company's behalf, in the form the ministry accepts.
• The earlier application, where a priority date is being claimed from it.
• The Arabic version of the name, where the packaging and the shopfront carry one.

Keeping an eye on the gazette once the certificate is in hand is brand protection.

Sources: the ninety-day window and the ten-year term are in the Law on Industrial Property Rights, Royal Decree 67/2008; the Gulf trademark law was promulgated in Oman by Royal Decree 33/2017; the designation amounts are published by the World Intellectual Property Organization.